As part of implementing the proposed government's e-policy, the Kenyan ICT board is reportedly in negotiations with global ICT infrastructure firm EMC of the US.
The company is the world's largest storage computer maker, providing data centre storage, data consolidation and virtualization including, data security among other solutions.
Speaking during a media briefing here Friday, held at a Nairobi Hotel, EMC Regio nal Channel and Partners Manager, Prem Pather, said the confidential discussions were at an advanced stage.
Sources disclosed that the project, dubbed 'e-Government National Data Centre Pr oject', had a price tag of US$ 120 million to be funded through grants from various benefactors.
"This will involve a lot of infrastructural development for data storage, and content management within an estimated time frame of between six to 12 months from commencement to completion", the sources disclosed.
Implementation of e-government is generally expected to usher in an environment to allow easier information interchange between government and stakeholders such as Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), citizens and other development partners.
Currently most government departments have websites but which are rarely updated regularly.
For an effective e-government, an initial two-way interaction would be required for the websites such as ability to download forms that can either be submitted on-line or offline.
The facilitation of online transactions would be the attendant third stage where the websites could support some formal online payments or creating and submitting information such as tax returns.
Others could include comprehensive government portals, that can provide a wide range of information to users and support one-stop operations without the need for dealing directly with different agencies.
EMC, which is soon to launch a regional office in Kenya, said it was looking at potential business areas of disaster recovery, e-government and data centre development for both governments and corporate organisations in the region.
"We are very interested in the Public sector in Africa where we have already con ducted successful projects content management projects in Angola, South Africa, Nigeria and even Egypt," said Pather.
The company, he said, had since January 2008 spent US$ 790,000 in creating partn ership and trade links while offering training in the run up of a full roll out of services.
He said EMC, that has since January 2007 spent over US$ 7 billion in acquisitions worldwide, was, however, not keen on local takeovers.
"We will build our local partnerships in the short term since we don't intend to import any skills, hoping to have a fully enabled service delivery mechanism for the region within the next four years," said Pather.
EMC, he disclosed, would look to offer demand-driven but unique business solutio ns for the small and medium enterprises (SME) market in Kenya that currently offers the biggest growth area globally.
'Seventy per cent of our business in South Africa was enterprise driven and whic h we similarly foresee for much of the region," said Gerhard Van Der Merwe, Country Manager for South African.
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Quelle/Source: Afrique en ligne, 08.11.2008
